Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Mental Health: Emergency Services

Kevin Hollinrake: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the Gratitude Games.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the Gratitude Games.

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to help support the organisation of the 2023 Gratitude Games.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of plans for the Gratitude Games.

Nigel Huddleston: The Government recognises the impact that sport and physical activity has on physical and mental health, and the importance of welfare and wellbeing for everyone participating in sport at all levels.The Government's role in the support of bidding for and hosting major sporting events is set out in the Gold Framework. The Gratitude Games do not meet the criteria as set out in the Gold Framework and therefore would not be within scope for support. We encourage all organisations to continue to work together to support mental health through sport and physical activity.

Youth Work: West Midlands

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) youth centres and (b) youth workers there were in (i) Birmingham and (ii) the West Midlands in each of the last 12 years.

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Government has spent on youth services in (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands in each of the last 12 years.

Nigel Huddleston: We currently do not hold information on the number of youth workers and youth centres in Birmingham, however we are working with the National Youth Agency to conduct the National Youth Sector Census to better understand the spread of services, and number of youth workers in different areas across the country.As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion last year.DCMS is currently reviewing the statutory duty and its associated guidance to assess the effectiveness after a call for responses from key youth stakeholders. Local authorities are required by section 507B(12) to have regard to the statutory guidance when exercising their functions in relation to the statutory duty.

Swimming Pools

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing capital funding to support the transition of swimming pools in public leisure centres to renewable energy sources.

Nigel Huddleston: We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to leisure facilities, including swimming pools, which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. We are committed to supporting these facilities to transition to renewable energy sources.The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme provides grants for public sector bodies to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures. The scheme supports the aim of reducing emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037, as set out in the Heat and Buildings Strategy and the Net Zero Strategy in October 2021. For example last year, during Phase 3a, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council was awarded £1,728,500 to decarbonise the swimming pool at Todmorden Sports Centre.The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and the Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund are open to public sector bodies in England and areas of reserved public services across the UK. Sport, and Local Government, are devolved matters, therefore investment decisions concerning them in Wales are the responsibility of the relevant administration.

Youth Services: Finance

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the National Youth Guarantee funds will become available.

Nigel Huddleston: DCMS received £560 million to deliver the National Youth Guarantee over the Spending Review period.The first phase of the Youth Investment Fund saw £12 million spent in financial year 21/22 in key levelling up areas, which has provided funding for over 400 youth organisations. Funding was used for a wide range of equipment to assist with youth activities, as well as capital improvements that will reduce overheads and running costs. Phase Two will fund the construction or redevelopment of up to 300 youth facilities, targeting investment in left-behind areas, where young people have the greatest need and lowest provision. £368 million has been allocated to Phase Two, which will open for bids in summer 2022.DCMS also funds the National Citizen Service (NCS) which is running a range of activities during the 2022 summer holidays, providing access to adventures away from home, skills development, engaging in local community projects and volunteering opportunities for thousands of young people across the country. NCS has already received £72 million this year and will receive around £100 million in the following two years. Additionally, DCMS has already signed a grant agreement with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme for £4.2 million, enabling them to offer every state secondary school in England the chance to participate, in collaboration with the Department for Education.Finally DCMS has committed £6 million to the #iwill fund, fully matched by the National Lottery Community Fund, to support tens of thousands more youth volunteering opportunities.Further funding to tackle Uniformed Youth waiting lists will begin to be released later this year.

Sports Competitors: Gender Recognition

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to help ensure that people born male who are transitioning their gender cannot participate in female competitive sports.

Nigel Huddleston: As the UK sports councils concluded when they published transgender inclusion guidance for domestic sports last year, balancing transgender inclusion, safety and fairness at all times is not possible in every sport. When it comes to competitive sport, the government believes that fairness has to be the primary consideration. That is why in June 2022 the Culture Secretary convened a meeting of our domestic governing bodies to urge them to follow a policy that competitive women’s sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex. Sports governing bodies each have their own rules on transgender issues and it is appropriate that they can determine the right position for their own sport.The Government is clear that a way forward is needed that protects and shows compassion to all athletes, whilst being clear that the integrity of competition must be maintained. We want to ensure that everybody in this country has the opportunity to play and enjoy sport.

Home Office

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

John McNally: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department makes an assessment of the (a) location and (b) cost of temporary accommodation when determining the order in which asylum seekers in that accommodation are given interviews.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office do not make an assessment of the location or cost of temporary accommodation when determining the order in which asylum seekers are given interviews; our usual tasking priorities are followed.We are currently concentrating on deciding older claims, cases with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. Additionally, we are prioritising cases where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required. Asylum Operations have also introduced a digital interviewing capability as part of the wider Home Office digital transformation programme. This enables us to maximise our capacity to conduct interviews in locations across the UK and progress cases in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan refugees remain in hotels following their arrival in the UK in summer 2021.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan refugees have found permanent accommodation since arriving in the UK following the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse is of temporary housing for Afghan refugees.

Kevin Foster: In 2021, the UK Government undertook the biggest and fastest emergency evacuation in recent history, helping over 15,000 people to safety from Afghanistan. Since the end of Op PITTING, we have brought a further c.4,000 Afghans to the UK. Due to the scale and pace of the evacuation we were not able to source appropriate accommodation in the normal way, so we have had to use hotels as a temporary measure.As of 18 July 2022, we are currently providing temporary accommodation for c.9,500 individuals resettling in the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), whilst they await permanent accommodation.Over 7000 Afghans have already moved or are in the process of being moved into their permanent accommodation. In addition to the work, we are doing to provide appropriate accommodation for Afghans, a number of families have, in recent months, taken steps to secure their own accommodation.The cost of accommodating those resetting under ACRS or ARAP, whilst they await permanent accommodation, is estimated at £1 million a day. The Home Office works to secure contracts which offer the best value for money, whilst providing an appropriate level of support to those under its care.We do not want to see Afghan families in temporary accommodation for any longer than is absolutely necessary. We are therefore working with local authorities across the UK to identify more opportunities for those being housed in bridging hotels to move into permanent accommodation.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2022 to Question 31838 on Visas: Applications, for what reason her Department did not inform Homes for Ukraine applicants regarding the IT incident; how many applicants were affected by the IT incident; and what the average time taken was to resolve affected cases.

Kevin Foster: A small number of Ukraine Scheme Visa applications were affected by an IT issue on 20th May 2022, which resulted in a delay.The root cause was quickly identified and was fixed for all new applications, with those applications that had been affected proceeding through to casework consideration.Those who were required to take any action were contacted to do so. Of 16 cases which were formerly unresolved, 13 cases have now been decided or are in the process of being decided, with 3 still to upload a valid photograph, for which support is being offered.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Afghanistan: Development Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much her Department spent on programmes targeted at women and girls in Afghanistan in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.

Graham Stuart: The majority of spending on women and girls is integrated into other programmes, rather than through discrete programmes specifically designed to target women and girls. For example during the period 2019 to 2022, the UK provided £190m to the World Bank's Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund which targets women and girls. We also fund programmes specifically targeted at women and girls. The UK spent £0.9m, in 2019/20, £0.8m in 2020/21 and £4.3m 2021/22 on programmes in Afghanistan aimed at tackling gender-based violence, sexual reproductive health services, health protection and empowerment.

Department of Health and Social Care

Clinical Trials

Anthony Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of clinical trial participants were recruited to industry sponsored clinical trials supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.

James Morris: The information requested is shown in the following table.2017/183%2018/193%2019/202%2020/211%2021/221% ‘The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery’, published in March 2021, sets out the ambition to increase participation of patients to clinical trials, including industry sponsored trials. ‘The Future of Clinical Research Delivery: 2022 to 2025 implementation plan’, published on 30 June 2022, summarises progress to date and the actions which will be taken over the next three years to increase participation in clinical trials.

Numed Healthcare: Medical Equipment

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2022 to Question 11557 on Numed Healthcare: Medical Equipment, whether NHS Supply Chain has received communication from Numed Inc Products’ United Kingdom distributor as of 19 July 2022.

Maria Caulfield: NHS Supply Chain has received routine communication from NuMED Inc Products’ United Kingdom distributor.

Incontinence: Surgical Mesh Implants

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many colposuspension surgeries were performed by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust between (a) 1 July 2018 and 1 July 2019, (b) 2 July 2019 and 1 July 2020, (c) 2 July 2020 and 1 July 2021 and (d) 2 July 2021 and 11 July 2022.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England has advised that no colposuspension surgeries were performed at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust between 1 July 2018 and 11 July 2022.

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust: Surgical Mesh Implants

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many autologous fascia sling procedures were performed by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust between (a) 1 July 2018 and 1 July 2019, (b) 2 July 2019 and 1 July 2020, (c) 2 July 2020 and 1 July 2021 and (d) 2 July 2021 and 11 July 2022.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England has advised that autologous fascia slings procedures were performed at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust between 2 July 2019 and 1 July 2020. However, we are unable to provide the information requested for this period due to the low patient numbers, which could identify individuals. No procedures took place from 1 July 2018 to 2 July 2019 and 2 July 2020 to 11 July 2022.

Primary Health Care: Recruitment

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many primary care staff have been recruited by the NHS since December 2019.

James Morris: As at December 2021, there were a further 1,672 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in general practice and an additional 11,097 FTE direct patient care staff in general practice and Primary Care Networks compared to December 2019.

Gynaecology: Health Services

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish examples from within the NHS of (a) innovative care and (b) best practice for patients receiving treatment on NHS England’s Gynaecology Service; and if he will make a statement.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme published a national report for maternity and gynaecology services for National Health Service clinical teams in September 2021. This outlined opportunities for improvement in the provision of gynaecology services for women in England and sharing best practice for providers.Gynaecology is also one of six specialties prioritised through GIRFT’s high volume low complexity programme, which supports the establishment of surgical hubs for high-volume procedures and the development of standardised patient pathways to support the recovery of elective services. Standardised pathways of care and best practice for gynaecology patients are available through the Best Practice Library at the following link:https://www.gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/bpl/Such examples of best practice include a transition to day-case surgery for a number of gynaecological procedures, including hysterectomy where appropriate, which minimises the patient’s time under anaesthetic and ensures a faster recovery.

Members: Correspondence

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Minister for Patient Safety and Primary Care plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 9 June and (b) 22 June 2022 from the hon. Member for Portsmouth South.

Maria Caulfield: We apologise for the delay in replying to the hon. Member. A reply will be sent as soon as possible.

Health Services: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government will develop dedicated women's health hubs in local communities.

Maria Caulfield: Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of the local population. We encourage local commissioners and providers to consider if such models would improve access to services and patient experience.

Health: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NHS providers at a local level on integrating women’s health services.

Maria Caulfield: We have had no specific discussions.